This is a serious question - I have not been following tennis for the past two months. Why did Nadal not start? Still knee problems or something else?

OK, short update then. He planned to start in Abu Dhabi to see how he's doing, reportedly he hadn't been trainning at full still although claimed the knees were fine. Then just befor Xmas he got some bad stomach virus and reportedly had high fever for 4-5 days so decided to pass the Doha and AO too as there was not enough time to prepare properly for 5-set matches. Almugro is reported to saying Rafa's knee wasn't fine despite the public claims of the opposite. So in short it's all a huge mystery, as expected from Tio Toni aka Team Nadal.

He is due to come back now during the South American clay swing, may be Vina del Mar, or Sao Paulo or Acapulco, we'll see. Could also be out till Monte Carlo.

OK, short update then. He planned to start in Abu Dhabi to see how he's doing, reportedly he hadn't been trainning at full still although claimed the knees were fine. Then just befor Xmas he got some bad stomach virus and reportedly had high fever for 4-5 days so decided to pass the Doha and AO too as there was not enough time to prepare properly for 5-set matches. Almugro is reported to saying Rafa's knee wasn't fine despite the public claims of the opposite. So in short it's all a huge mystery, as expected from Tio Toni aka Team Nadal.

He is due to come back now during the South American clay swing, may be Vina del Mar, or Sao Paulo or Acapulco, we'll see. Could also be out till Monte Carlo.

Thanks Maria! Not good to hear that the knees might still be in pain. I hope he comes back soon and gets healthy again. It must be difficult for him to watch it from the sideline, the way he loves tennis. Rafa should play a lighter schedule when he comes back. I think 2-3 more Slams are possible for him if he can run properly.

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"You cannot be a number one in the world and be a good loser"

I want to ask you people something. Do you believe that top tennis players dope? i thought about that myself, for example if Federer uses doping.... he seems a very honest, intelligent person (to me), which does not fit with drugs, on the other hand so many top athletes turn out to have used questionable substances. Now, we can not talk about doping and specific players as scoobs goes nuts, but on a general basis, whats you opinion on the subject?

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"You cannot be a number one in the world and be a good loser"

I want to ask you people something. Do you believe that top tennis players dope? i thought about that myself, for example if Federer uses doping.... he seems a very honest, intelligent person (to me), which does not fit with drugs, on the other hand so many top athletes turn out to have used questionable substances. Now, we can not talk about doping and specific players as scoobs goes nuts, but on a general basis, whats you opinion on the subject?

I've thought about that too, watched that interview Lance Armstrong gave to Oprah. Actually those ICU bosses that let all this doping to prevail in cycling should really be hold reponsible but that will never happen.

Some have expressed doubts about tennis too, fewer out-of-competition tests recently etc. No point in naming names anyway without proof, Hilde's fave accused Söderling of all people lately btw. And kinda Nadal too of course.
I DO hope tennis is clean, I really really do. Maybe I'm naive as always. As I think that the Nadals would not do that to Rafa's health, not even for all those millions although who knows. I do hope I'm right because otherwise his uncle and others would be simply ruthless criminals like all those cycling people and I'd be really really disappointed. Things tend to come out eventually, I wonder how Armstrong & Co hoped nothing at that scale wouldn't come out.
Fed's parents were in the pharma industry so also, they should know what that could do to their son's health! Not that Fed has even needed any PED anyway.
Oli Rochus spoke for legalizing doping but that would mean people doping themselves to death so I understand it's not an option.

Plus Fed is definitely not a psycho like Lance, Rafa neither, hopefully. But well what do we know.

Me too actually! I believed Lance was clean. I wanted to believe it. It was just a fairy-tale story, I like those
Oh well what an idiot to survive cancer and then risk his life again on purpose while having a family

Quote:

Originally Posted by MariaV

Some have expressed doubts about tennis too, fewer out-of-competition tests recently etc. No point in naming names anyway without proof, Hilde's fave accused Söderling of all people lately btw. And kinda Nadal too of course.
I DO hope tennis is clean, I really really do. Maybe I'm naive as always. As I think that the Nadals would not do that to Rafa's health, not even for all those millions although who knows. I do hope I'm right because otherwise his uncle and others would be simply ruthless criminals like all those cycling people and I'd be really really disappointed. Things tend to come out eventually, I wonder how Armstrong & Co hoped nothing at that scale wouldn't come out.

True, lol... It is kinda naive to think these things will never catch up with you. on the other hand, if you love your sport and want to be the best, and you just know, I mean know for a fact that you will never be on top without using the same stuff the others do. that can be quite a dilemma...

Quote:

Fed's parents were in the pharma industry so also, they should know what that could do to their son's health!

Well then they have perfect connections to get the newest stuff...

Quote:

Plus Fed is definitely not a psycho like Lance, Rafa neither, hopefully. But well what do we know.

Fed not but R... just kidding it is hard to sometimes see behind the exterior. I mean not all doping is that dangerous, there is a blurred line, I'm sure there are lots of things out there that are still legal and it is not even clear what they do to the body. for example steroids were legal in the 1970's and people thought they were okay to take back then..

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"You cannot be a number one in the world and be a good loser"

I agree there's a fine line between the legal and illegal stuff.
You are so naive, just like me.

Lance is a psycho and after cancer he obviously didn't care what that could do to his health.

HECK, YOU NATURE MAN!!!!!!!!! Yeah yeah I know you're a physicist but .... Explain me the influences of GMO, we don't know what that stuff does to a human body or nature in the long run, or do we? Just that Monsanto earns billions on that. As usual.

I don't know too much about GMO. I know that there literally thousands of new substances that come into circulation every year, GMO and mostly just "normal" new chemicals, generated in some laboratory by some smart guy. only some trivial standard tests are done. nobody knows what these things do really . I mean, who has time and money to see what these stuff does to humans over lets say 20 years?
In general, as a nature man, I think it seldom turns out too well if humans mess too much with nature. Now if you introduce new genes into the environment like antibiotic resistance genes in GMO, they might get transfered to other organism, creating for example new microbes that are resistant to multiple antibiotics, or getting transfered to us creating some problems etc…
Officially all these things are perfectly save, and Monsanto, Nestle and Co just want your best, so no reason to worry

Go build yourself a snowman and stop to muse

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"You cannot be a number one in the world and be a good loser"